maybe the Humphry inn will make a power play and take over CanadInns in the biggest surprise business deal in Winnipeg hotel history!

I'm surprised that this story didn't get more play...

Gary Ng, a 34 year old finance guy (not sure if that's the official title) just bought PI Financial Corp. of Vancouver for $101 million -- cash.

Apparently he made his fortune a decade ago during the 08-09 financial crisis. He lives in Lindenwoods, his dad is a retired mechanic and his mom was an office secretary at MTS.

Crazy.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...700868911.html

Wow, good for him.

Would love to see him put a presence in Winnipeg. Eiter way, that's an impressive resume.

^The Free Press story made it sound like he mostly lives in Vancouver now, but maintains some ties to Winnipeg.

Seems to have flown under the radar for the most part locally, so figured I'd post this myself (normally I'd wait for someone who doesn't work for Richardson post such things):

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...503093861.html

can't wait for the trickle down effects

If I'm detecting sarcasm correctly, it is a somewhat fair point. However, do consider that Richardson International has hundreds of downtown Winnipeg employees, and is a company that produces nothing in Winnipeg itself. All of the head office is "trickle down effect" of the grain elevators, terminals and processing plants that the company owns.

It may not be Skip in terms of numbers, but there's a lot of high quality jobs at Portage and Main that support these far flung locations.

With that said, I try my best to stay out of these discussions (and out of the Innovation Centre thread for the most part)... just wanted to let people know that there was some news this week.

lol I can't see it being a bad thing that a local company is expanding their portfolio.

Richardson’s brings external wealth into Winnipeg. By contrast, TNSE, as an example, re-spends wealth that it has accumulated by and large from local consumers.

This could end up leading to more Canadian inputs going into the oil down there. Can only be a positive.

A Winnipeg-headquartered firm is a very good thing, and its growth and success is important to keep it from being an acquisition target.

I know it's privately held, but selling isn't an impossibility -- it was only a few years ago that TD made overtures hoping to buy the family's wealth-management business for half a billion+.

Also Tundra Oil & Gas.

When the proletariat revolts and Richardson International is finally nationalized, there will be plenty of grain to feed us starving masses of non-bourgeoisie. :D

Lol can't wait to stand in a bread line

can't wait for my weekly ration of sweet, sweet canola oil!

https://www.theleafnews.com/news/win...503246402.html

Looks like Bonify's days are probably numbered if this is true. Wonder what will happen to their assets (they have a production facility in the North End).

Anyone know who the investors behind this firm are?

Gary Ng has offices throughout the country but is definitely headquartered here... in 201 Portage I think. I see him in Wpg square from time to time. Impressive achievements from that guy.

Delta vs. Fairmont
 

In the midst of my first stay at the Delta. While I would say that "VG" (formerly the Velvet Glove) at the Fairmont is a better restaurant than Blaze, the rooms at the Delta are a notch above the Fairmont. Definitely not luxury, but more up to date. However, I still prefer the Inn at the Forks. If they ever signed up with one of Marriott or Hilton's soft brands I would never stay anywhere else when here.

One thing to keep in mind, when they are trying to check out opposing NHL teams there is a lot of security and the lobby can get congested. At other times things are much more casual. e.g. Bruce Boudreau was holding court in the lobby earlier this evening.

Not sure if it's been made public yet but the illegal weed came from Hells Angels. They were mixing the HA weed in with the weed they were growing. Bonify is owned by a German holding company who from the sounds of it had zero idea any of this was going on – it was being done by the local managers. The German company fired all the top people almost immediately after hearing about this.

I've heard from several people that apparently almost all the growers are using gang-affiliated consultants as many of them have no experience in how to securely and safely store and distribute marijuana. It needs to be extremely secure to deter break ins and thefts in delivery, like armored banking trucks. This is kind of what happens when you take the RFP process to produce weed that Manitoba decided on – the people with lots of money won the contracts, regardless of how much experience they had in the field.